Identity analysis and correlation

ABSTRACT

An identity analysis and correlation service system can include a summary manager service for generating identity correlation summaries pertaining to a persona, wherein the generated identity correlation summaries are based on discovered content corresponding to the persona and analyzed content corresponding to the discovered content. The system can include a content search manager service for generating the discovered content based on search criteria and a semantic analysis service for generating the analyzed content. The system can also include a data store for storing the generated identity correlation summaries and a notification service for providing a notification based on the generated identity correlation summaries.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to and commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/929,678, titled “CONSTRUCTION, MANIPULATION, AND COMPARISON OF A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL SEMANTIC SPACE,” filed on Oct. 30, 2007, which is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/562,337, filed on Nov. 21, 2006, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/512,963, filed Feb. 25, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,152,031, issued on Dec. 19, 2006. All of the foregoing applications are fully incorporated by reference herein.

This application is also related to and commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/616,154, titled “SYSTEM AND METHOD OF SEMANTIC CORRELATION OF RICH CONTENT,” filed on Dec. 26, 2006, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/563,659, titled “METHOD AND MECHANISM FOR THE CREATION, MAINTENANCE, AND COMPARISON OF SEMANTIC ABSTRACTS,” filed on Nov. 27, 2006, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/615,726, filed on Jul. 13, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,197,451, issued on Mar. 27, 2007; and is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/468,684, titled “WEB-ENHANCED TELEVISION EXPERIENCE,” filed on Aug. 30, 2006; and is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/691,629, titled “METHOD AND MECHANISM FOR SUPERPOSITIONING STATE VECTORS IN A SEMANTIC ABSTRACT,” filed on Oct. 18, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,389,225, issued on Jun. 17, 2008; and is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/554,476, titled “INTENTIONAL-STANCE CHARACTERIZATION OF A GENERAL CONTENT STREAM OR REPOSITORY,” filed on Oct. 30, 2006, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/653,713, filed on Sep. 5, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,286,977, issued on Oct. 23, 2007. All of the foregoing applications are fully incorporated by reference herein.

This application is also related to co-pending and commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/710,027, titled “DIRECTED SEMANTIC DOCUMENT PEDIGREE,” filed on Nov. 7, 2000, which is fully incorporated by reference herein.

This application is also related to co-pending and commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/638,121, titled “POLICY ENFORCEMENT VIA ATTESTATIONS,” filed on Dec. 13, 2006, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/225,993, titled “CRAFTED IDENTITIES,” filed on Sep. 14, 2005, and is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/225,994, titled “ATTESTED IDENTITIES,” filed on Sep. 14, 2005. All of the foregoing applications are fully incorporated by reference herein.

This application is also related to and fully incorporates by reference the following co-pending and commonly owned patent applications: U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/267,279, titled “PREDICTIVE SERVICE SYSTEMS,” filed on Nov. 7, 2008; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/346,662, titled “CONTENT ANALYSIS AND CORRELATION,” filed on Dec. 30, 2008; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/346,665, titled “ATTRIBUTION ANALYSIS AND CORRELATION,” filed on Dec. 30, 2008.

This application also fully incorporates by reference the following commonly owned patents: U.S. Pat. No. 6,108,619, titled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SEMANTIC CHARACTERIZATION OF GENERAL CONTENT STREAMS AND REPOSITORIES,” U.S. Pat. No. 7,177,922, titled “POLICY ENFORCEMENT USING THE SEMANTIC CHARACTERIZATION OF TRAFFIC,” and U.S. Pat. No. 6,650,777, titled “SEARCHING AND FILTERING CONTENT STREAMS USING CONTOUR TRANSFORMATIONS,” which is a divisional of U.S. Pat. No. 6,459,809.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The disclosed technology pertains to systems and methods for correlating one or more personas with content and identity exposure on a network.

BACKGROUND

As various types of content and attributions proliferate on the Internet, maintaining the anonymity of a contributor becomes increasingly difficult. While multiple anonymous personas may be used, identity information can still be inadvertently exposed and, if correlated over time, the true identity of a persona can be undesirably exposed. For example, as the owner of a persona interacts in a collaborative manner on a network, it becomes increasingly possible that the user's identity information will be leaked out in such a way that a third party could correlate the information back to the supposedly anonymous persona.

SUMMARY

An identity analysis and correlation system can include a content searching service, a semantic analysis service, and a summary generation service. The content searching service can include a content search manager operable to coordinate with multiple search engines to run queries against content such as private content and public content. The queries can be built based at least in part on search criteria that can be provided by the user, for example, and the search results can be stored as discovered content. The semantic analysis service can be used to generate analyzed content based at least in part on the discovered content. The summary generation service can be used to generate summaries based at least in part on persona information and content, the discovered content, and the analyzed content.

Embodiments of the disclosed technology can advantageously provide a user with enhanced identity correlation over time. For example, implementations of the disclosed technology can alert the owner of a particular persona of a possibility (or probability) of identity exposure. Embodiments of the disclosed technology can also advantageously provide an alert to a user in the event that new content authored by or posted by the user, for example, could increase an existing possibility of identity exposure.

The foregoing and other features, objects, and advantages of the invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an example of an identity analysis and correlation service in accordance with embodiments of the disclosed technology.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a persona generation service suitable for generating a persona in accordance with embodiments of the disclosed technology.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a content search service in accordance with embodiments of the disclosed technology.

FIG. 4 shows a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of constructing a semantic abstract for a document based on dominant vectors.

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of comparing two semantic abstracts and recommending a second content that is semantically similar to a content of interest.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a semantic analysis service in accordance with embodiments of the disclosed technology.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a summary generation service in accordance with embodiments of the disclosed technology.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a dashboard in accordance with embodiments of the disclosed technology.

FIG. 9 shows an example of an identity analysis and correlation method in accordance with embodiments of the disclosed technology.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the disclosed technology, such as the exemplary embodiments described in detail below, can advantageously provide various types of mechanisms for assisting the owner of one or more personas to further protect his or her identity information by alerting the owner of the possibility of identity exposure and warning the owner when new content authored by and/or posted by the owner could increase the possibility of such identity exposure.

Exemplary Identity Analysis and Correlation Services

FIG. 1 shows an example of an identity analysis and correlation service 100 in accordance with embodiments of the disclosed technology. A summary generator 102 can receive as input information pertaining to persona content 104, discovered content 106, and analyzed content 108, all of which are discussed in detail below. The summary generator 102 can produce as output N summaries 110A through 110N, which can be used to alert a user to the likelihood of certain user content being correlated to one or more of the user's personas. The summaries 110A through 110N can be stored (e.g., in local memory or in a database) and/or outputted to a display. In certain embodiments, a dashboard (not shown) can be used to provide a graphical representation of certain information pertaining to one or more of the summaries 110A through 110N.

In an example, a user has three personas A, B, and C. The true identity of the user is anonymous with respect to the three personas. The more content is generated for each of the personas, the greater the likelihood of a correlation between the personas. Consider a situation where a correlation between personas A and B is established. As both A and B approach the third persona C, a conclusion that all three personas belong to the same user becomes more evident. Additionally, if the identity of the user is disclosed for either A or B, the probability of the user's identity being disclosed for the other personas increases. As such, identity correlation summaries (such as summaries 110A through 110N of FIG. 1) can advantageously alert a user to such correlations before identity information for some or all of the user's personas is revealed.

Exemplary Personas

As used herein, a persona generally refers to an identity (e.g., a generated identity) that can allow the true identity of a user to remain anonymous. A persona can include a simple declaration of identity (such as an email address, for example) or it can include a more sophisticated declaration (such as a tokenized identity or a crafted identity, for example).

In certain embodiments, an identity record can be provided for each persona, wherein the identity record can specify in detail identity information (e.g., identity attributes) pertaining to the persona. Such identity attributes can be marked as private or public, thereby indicating which identity attributes are to be kept private (e.g., not disclosed to others) during collaboration such as a user group collaboration on a network.

In certain embodiments, a user can provide links to of his or her membership or association with one or more communities (e.g., online user group). The user can also provide summaries of his or her persona's membership in a particular community. In general, a user's persona can be a member of many different communities. Also, different personas (e.g., multiple personas corresponding to the same user) can belong to the same community. For any given community, for example, a member user can provide a statement of intent describing why the user's pertinent persona is a member of the community and what the user hopes to gain by the persona's membership in the community. In certain embodiments, such a statement of intent is advantageously withheld (e.g., not shared) with the rest of the community. Other information concerning the persona's membership in the community can also be withheld from the community.

Exemplary Persona Generation Services

FIG. 2 shows an example of a persona generation service 200 suitable for generating a persona in accordance with embodiments of the disclosed technology. The persona generation service 200 can be implemented in a tangible, machine-readable medium, for example. The persona generation service 200 can generate a persona on behalf of a principal requestor or principal (e.g., any type of resource making a request for a persona, such as a user, a group of users, or an automated service). The persona generation service 200 can also generate multiple personas on behalf of the principal.

A principal generally authenticates to the persona generation service 200 when requesting a persona. That is, the persona generation service 200 and the principal are said to be in a trust relationship with one another and can thus communicate with one another securely. Also, the persona generation service 200 has access to identifiers and secrets of the principal, which are generally directed to the true identity of the principal. The secure communication is generally directed toward establishing a persona and, within this context, the persona generation service 200 can validate identifiers of the principal to assure the persona generation service 200 of the identity of the principal for the context.

The persona generation service 200 can receive a request from a principal to create a persona, as shown at 202. Once created, such a persona can advantageously preserve the anonymity of the principal and thereby prevent resources from accessing information about the principal (except, in some instances, for information that is included within an identity record associated with the persona).

The persona generation service 200 can acquire a contract associated with the request for the persona, as shown at 204. The contract typically identifies or defines certain policies that are enforced during creation of the persona, for example. The contract may also identity the type of persona to be created.

The persona generation service 200 can assemble roles (e.g., designations recognized within the context of a given resource, such as administrator, supervisor, and visitor) and/or permissions (e.g., access rights for a given role on a given resource, such as read access, write access, and read/write access) for the persona, as shown at 206.

The roles and/or permissions for the persona can be expressed as a static definition or a dynamic specification, as shown at 208. A static definition can be predefined for a given role. Thus, resolution of permissions for a given role are typically fully calculated and declared once assembled for the persona. Conversely, the roles and/or permissions can be expressed within a specification associated with the persona.

The persona generation service 200 can access one or more policies that drive the assembly and creation of the persona and its associated information, as shown at 210. A policy can dictate what is included and what is not included in the personal and related information.

A statement or related information representing a completed persona can be created, as shown at 212. The roles and/or permissions, attributes, and identifier information for the newly created persona can be packed in a format defined by a policy or other specification.

The persona generation service 200 can package a context-sensitive policy in the statement, as shown at 214. The context-sensitive policy can permit the persona to be managed from different environments based on the context. Certain context-sensitive policies can permit the principal to determine access rights based on the contexts or environments within which the desired resource is being accessed by the principal associated with the persona.

The persona generation service 200 can accumulate identifier information from a variety of identity vaults or identifier repositories, as shown at 216. The identifier information can include attributes concerning the principal that, according to a policy, are to be exposed in the persona. The resource can use these attributes to validate the persona. The identifier information can include a key and/or a certificate, for example. The identifier information typically prevents the resource validating from acquiring additional identifier information about the principal. Once the resource validates the persona presented by the principal, the principal can assume the persona within the context of accessing the resource and can desirably remain anonymous to the resource. Thus, the resource is assured that it is dealing with a legitimate and uncompromised identity.

The persona generation service 200 can maintain and manage the persona. For example, a statement can be provided to the principal on an as-needed or dynamic basis whenever the principal desires to use it to access a given resource. Rather than directly providing the statement representing the persona to the principal, the creation service can provide a token to the principal such that the principal can acquire the statement when desired using the token, as shown at 218.

The persona generation service 200 can represent the identifier information of the persona that is included in the statement in an encrypted format, as shown at 220, so as to prevent is interception or unauthorized use, for example. As discussed above, the identifier information can include key information, such as certificates and signatures. The statement generally represents a final expression of the persona.

The persona generation service 200 can sign the final version of a statement that represents the persona, as shown at 222. This digital signature can serve as an assertion to the authenticity of the persona for other services, principals, and/or resources that trust the persona generation service 200. The statement can also be signed by the principal receiving it or by a principal service.

Once the persona generation service 200 has generated the persona for the principal and has included a mechanism for the principal to acquire and access the statement representing the persona, the principal can advantageously use the information within the statement to securely and anonymously access a desired resource for which the persona was created, such as an online forum or blog. Since a single persona can include identifier information that can be validated and used with more than one desired resource, a single persona and statement can combine to provide a requesting principal with anonymous access to a multitude of different resources.

Exemplary Content

For purposes of the embodiments described herein, content (e.g., online contributions such as posted information) will generally be classified as either private content or public content, or some combination thereof.

As used herein, private content refers to content that is typically under the control of a particular user via one or more personas owned and/or operated by the user. The user (via one or more personas) may choose to guard such content and withhold it from an online community, for example.

As used herein, public content refers to content that is usually publicly available (e.g., with no access controls). However, such public content may owned by a single user or a specified group of groups of users (via one or more personas).

A third type of content, restricted content, can be considered to be either private content or public content, depending upon the situation. Restricted content generally refers to content that is provided to a user (via one or more personas) under some type of license or access control system (e.g., content that is considered to be proprietary or secret to a certain enterprise, for example).

Exemplary Content Searching Services

Content authored by a single user or a collection of users is generally attributed to a particular persona when submitted to a forum of interest (e.g., a blog or some other forum or repository on the Internet). It is desirable to maintain strict separation of personas for various reasons such as privacy and security. Therefore, once content is released into a forum, it should maintain its association with the corresponding persona and not be used by another persona. Thus, in various embodiments of the disclosed technology in which content is searched and collected, such content is advantageously collected by persona.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a content search service 300 in accordance with embodiments of the disclosed technology. The content search service 300 can include search criteria 302, a content search manager 304, search engines 306A through 306N, and discovered content 308. Various aspects of the content search service 300 can be implemented in a tangible, machine-readable medium, for example.

A user can develop the search criteria 302 (e.g., template search criteria) to specify the type(s) of content (e.g., private and public) as well as certain attributes thereof to be searched. In certain embodiments, the search criteria 302 can be based on semantic abstracts or vectors. The search criteria 302 can also or alternatively be based on well-known search languages such as Yahoo! and Google, for example. In certain embodiments, the search criteria 302 can include a collection of any number of the techniques described herein.

In certain embodiments, the search criteria 302 can include an intent declaration (e.g., to help reduce the number of hits). Such an intent declaration can take the form of a number of communities of interest (e.g., as specified by the user) or semantic indicators that are resolvable via the search method being used. In certain embodiments, the search criteria 302 can be saved for future reuse. Such saved criteria can advantageously be combined with other saved criteria or pertinent information.

The search engines 306A through 306N can include commonly available search engines such as Yahoo! or Google, for example. The search engines 306A through 306N can also include private or subscription-based search engines that can search public content. The search engines 306A through 306N can also include private search engines that can access both public and private content. One of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that embodiments of the disclosed technology can include virtually any number, composition, and arrangement of search engines and, therefore, are not limited to the example illustrated in FIG. 3.

A content search manager 304 can use the search criteria 302, in whole or in part, for interacting with the search engines 306A through 306N. For example, the content search manager 304 can coordinate submission of the search criteria 302, in whole or in part, to one or more of the search engines 306A through 306N. The content search manager 304 can provide as output the search results, which can be stored as discovered content 308. The discovered content 308 can correspond to the discovered content 106 of FIG. 1, for example.

In certain embodiments, the content search manager 304 can advantageously run various searches based on the search criteria 302 in accordance with a schedule (such as a schedule specified in the search criteria 302, for example). In other embodiments, any number of the search engines 306A through 306N can be set to automatically run the corresponding search or searches according to a schedule communicated from the content search manager 304. The schedule communicated by the content search manager 304 can be based on a schedule specified in the search criteria 302. The search criteria 302 can be used repeatedly, and the corresponding results can be advantageously integrated and correlated over virtually any given period of time.

Exemplary Semantic Analysis Services

FIG. 4 shows a flowchart illustrating an example of a method 400 of constructing a semantic abstract for a document based on dominant vectors. At 402, words are extracted from the document. The words can be extracted from the entire document or from only portions of the document (such as one of the abstracts of the document or the topic sentences of the document, for example). At 404, a state vector is constructed for each word extracted from the document. At 406, the state vectors are filtered to reduce the size of the resulting set, producing the dominant vectors. Finally, at 408, the filtered state vectors are collected into a semantic abstract for the document.

The dominant vectors and the dominant phrase vectors can be generated at any time before the semantic abstract is created. Once the dominant vectors and dominant phrase vectors are created, the original document is not necessarily required to construct the semantic abstract.

FIG. 4 shows two additional steps that are also possible in the example. At 410, the semantic abstract is generated from both the dominant vectors and the dominant phrase vectors. The semantic abstract can be generated by filtering the dominant vectors based on the dominant phrase vectors, by filtering the dominant phrase vectors based on the dominant vectors, or by combining the dominant vectors and the dominant phrase vectors in some way, for example. Finally, at 412, the lexeme and lexeme phrases corresponding to the state vectors in the semantic abstract are determined.

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart illustrating an example of a method 500 of comparing two semantic abstracts and recommending a second content that is semantically similar to a content of interest. At 502, a semantic abstract for a content of interest is identified. At 504, another semantic abstract representing a prospective content is identified. In either or both 502 and 504, identifying the semantic abstract can include generating the semantic abstracts from the content, if appropriate. At 506, the semantic abstracts are compared. Next, a determination is made as to whether the semantic abstracts are “close,” as shown at 508. In the example, a threshold distance is used to determine if the semantic abstracts are “close.” However, one having ordinary skill in the art will recognize that there are various other ways in which two semantic abstracts can be deemed “close.”

If the semantic abstracts are within the threshold distance, then the second content is recommended to the user on the basis of being semantically similar to the first content of interest, as shown at 510. If the other semantic abstracts is not within the threshold distance of the first semantic abstract, however, then the process returns to step 504, where yet another semantic abstract is identified for another prospective content. Alternatively, if no other content can be located that is “close” to the content of interest, processing can end.

In certain embodiments, the exemplary method 500 can be performed for multiple prospective contents at the same time. In the present example, all prospective contents corresponding to semantic abstracts within the threshold distance of the first semantic abstract can be recommended to the user. Alternatively, the content recommender can also recommend the prospective content with the semantic abstract nearest to the first semantic abstract.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a semantic analysis service 600 in accordance with embodiments of the disclosed technology. The semantic analysis service 600 can include discovered content 602, persona information 604, community information 606, a semantic analysis module 608, and analyzed content 610. Various aspects of the semantic analysis service 600 can be implemented in a tangible, machine-readable medium, for example.

In the example, the semantic analysis module 608 can evaluate the discovered content 602 and, based on the evaluating, produce the analyzed content 610. In certain embodiments, analysis of the discovered content 602 can be performed in conjunction with related content in the analyzed content 610 (e.g., content resulting from the same search criteria). The semantic analysis module 608 can include various types of analysis and correlation mechanisms (e.g., statistical analysis for correlation).

The semantic analysis module 608 can advantageously accumulate the analyzed content 610 using multiple iterations of search criteria that, in certain embodiments, can be modified based on the discovery of correlations within the analyzed content 610 (such as in situations where semantic abstracts are close or converging, for example). The semantic analysis module 608 is desirably targeted toward correlating the discovered content 602 (e.g., both current and past) with any associated identity information (not shown) specified for the pertinent persona(s). In embodiments where at least some of the discovered content 602 is correlated and attributes within the identity information are associated, for example, the pertinent event information can be stored as part of the analyzed content 610.

Exemplary Summary Generation Services

FIG. 7 shows an example of a summary generation service 700 in accordance with embodiments of the disclosed technology. The summary generation service 700 can include a summary generation module 702, persona content 704, community information 706, discovered content 708, analyzed content 710, and one or more summaries 712A through 712N. Various aspects of the summary generation service 700 can be implemented in a tangible, machine-readable medium, for example.

The summary generation module 702 can access the discovered content 708 and analyzed content 710, for example, to produce the summaries 712A through 712N. The summaries 712A through 712N advantageously bring together the discovered content 708 and the analyzed content 710 such that any correlations between the content and at least one of a user's personas can be presented to the user. Furthermore, the summaries 712A through 712N can advantageously present to the user what, if any, identity attributes of the persona are being linked by the correlation(s).

By referring to the summaries, a user can advantageously define a persona and be advised of any content that can reference either the persona directly or the semantic position of the persona in terms of how identity attributes might be connected to the same persona via content correlation. For example, if a correlation is established between certain new content and a particular persona (even before publication of the content), an immediate advisory can be sent to the owner of the correlation. Thus, the user can modify affected content before publishing it if any identity attributes are potentially at risk of being correlated to a specific persona.

In certain embodiments, a dashboard can be used to provide a graphical representation of certain information pertaining to one or more of the summaries 712A through 712N. FIG. 8 shows an example of a dashboard 800 in accordance with embodiments of the disclosed technology. Status arrows 802A through 802N can be used, for example, to provide a graphical representation showing how certain discovered content relates to the semantic position of a particular persona and correlated identity attributes.

Exemplary Methods in Accordance with Implementations of the Disclosed Technology FIG. 9 shows an example of an identity analysis and correlation method 900 in accordance with embodiments of the disclosed technology.

At 902, a user can provide one or more search criteria to a content search manager that can in turn use the search criteria to generate one or more queries and/or different types of query-related information. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the search criteria can be automatically determined and provided to the content search manager. The search criteria and/or queries can correspond to a single persona or to multiple personas.

At 904, the content search manager can coordinate with one or more search engines to perform one or more searches on content such as private or public content. The search engines can include commonly available search engines such as Google, for example. The content search manager can instruct the search engines as to what queries to run and when to run some or all of them. For example, some or all of the searches can be conducted continuously, at regular intervals, or in response to a particular action. Results of the searches can be stored and identified as discovered content. The discovered content can be updated at certain times or after each search, for example. The searches and/or discovered content can correspond to a single persona or to multiple personas.

At 906, a semantic analysis module can perform a semantic analysis on some or all of the discovered content. The semantic analysis module can access the discovered content or receive the pertinent discovered content as input, for example. Performing the semantic analysis can include generating semantic abstracts for some or all of the discovered content. Results of the semantic analysis can be stored and identified as analyzed content. The semantic analysis can correspond to a single persona or to multiple personas.

At 908, a summary generator can be used to generate summaries based on at least one of the analyzed content, the discovered content, user content (e.g., content attributed to the user that owns the corresponding persona), and persona information (e.g., information pertaining to specific attributes of the persona itself or communities to which the persona belongs). The summaries can be stored and identified as corresponding to a single persona or to multiple personas.

At 910, a notification can be sent to the owner of the pertinent persona(s). For example, if at least one of the summaries indicates a certain correlation between the content and the persona, an advisory can be sent to the owner of the persona alerting him or her to the correlation. Such an advisory can be graphically displayed using a dashboard utility, for example. Notifications can be updated over time. For example, if the owner of the persona takes action that ultimately affects the discovered content, analyzed content, and/or summaries such that an identified correlation has changed, a notification can be sent to the user alerting him or her of the change to or elimination of the previously indicated correlation.

Exemplary User Scenarios in Accordance with Implementations of the Disclosed Technology

In a first example of a user scenario, user A has a first persona P1 and a second persona P2. However, nobody other than user A is aware that both personas P1 and P2 belong to user A. Using the first persona P1 on a certain day, user A posts an online article concerning insects that she found in her garden and that she considers to be interesting. Using the second persona P2 on the same day, user A blogs about a bug that she deems weird. Using the second persona P2 on a different day (but within a day of the original date), user A discusses in an online forum “interesting things” that she found in a garden.

Applying an implementation of the disclosed technology, a correlation between the first and second personas (P1 and P2, respectively) can provide that there is a probability of 30% that the two personas P1 and P2 belong to the same person. Such information can be presented to the user via a dashboard utility, for example. Based on this information, the user can then decide how to proceed. For example, the user may wish to edit or remove the online article and/or the blog entry, if possible.

In a second example of a user scenario, user B regularly uses two different personas: persona P1 and persona P2. However, nobody other than user B is aware that both personas P1 and P2 belong to user B. Using the first persona P1, user B relies on a corporate calendar that lists her business trip to Australia May 18-25. Using the second persona P2, user B posted online, in June, pictures from a recent trip to Australia. Also using the second persona P2, user B sent emails to various mailing lists at odd times during a week-long period in May. User B did not send any emails on May 24.

Applying an implementation of the disclosed technology, a correlation between the first and second personas (P1 and P2, respectively) provides that there is a probability of 75% that the two personas P1 and P2 belong to the same person. Such information can be presented to the user via a dashboard utility, for example. Based on this information, the user can then decide how to proceed. For example, the user may wish to edit or remove the corporate calendar entry and/or the pictures from her trip.

General Description of a Suitable Machine in which Embodiments of the Disclosed Technology can be Implemented

The following discussion is intended to provide a brief, general description of a suitable machine in which embodiments of the disclosed technology can be implemented. As used herein, the term “machine” is intended to broadly encompass a single machine or a system of communicatively coupled machines or devices operating together. Exemplary machines can include computing devices such as personal computers, workstations, servers, portable computers, handheld devices, tablet devices, and the like.

Typically, a machine includes a system bus to which processors, memory (e.g., random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), and other state-preserving medium), storage devices, a video interface, and input/output interface ports can be attached. The machine can also include embedded controllers such as programmable or non-programmable logic devices or arrays, Application Specific Integrated Circuits, embedded computers, smart cards, and the like. The machine can be controlled, at least in part, by input from conventional input devices (e.g., keyboards and mice), as well as by directives received from another machine, interaction with a virtual reality (VR) environment, biometric feedback, or other input signal.

The machine can utilize one or more connections to one or more remote machines, such as through a network interface, modem, or other communicative coupling. Machines can be interconnected by way of a physical and/or logical network, such as an intranet, the Internet, local area networks, wide area networks, etc. One having ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that network communication can utilize various wired and/or wireless short range or long range carriers and protocols, including radio frequency (RF), satellite, microwave, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 545.11, Bluetooth, optical, infrared, cable, laser, etc.

Embodiments of the disclosed technology can be described by reference to or in conjunction with associated data including functions, procedures, data structures, application programs, instructions, etc. that, when accessed by a machine, can result in the machine performing tasks or defining abstract data types or low-level hardware contexts. Associated data can be stored in, for example, volatile and/or non-volatile memory (e.g., RAM and ROM) or in other storage devices and their associated storage media, which can include hard-drives, floppy-disks, optical storage, tapes, flash memory, memory sticks, digital video disks, biological storage, and other tangible, physical storage media.

Associated data can be delivered over transmission environments, including the physical and/or logical network, in the form of packets, serial data, parallel data, propagated signals, etc., and can be used in a compressed or encrypted format. Associated data can be used in a distributed environment, and stored locally and/or remotely for machine access.

Having described and illustrated the principles of the invention with reference to illustrated embodiments, it will be recognized that the illustrated embodiments may be modified in arrangement and detail without departing from such principles, and may be combined in any desired manner. And although the foregoing discussion has focused on particular embodiments, other configurations are contemplated. In particular, even though expressions such as “according to an embodiment of the invention” or the like are used herein, these phrases are meant to generally reference embodiment possibilities, and are not intended to limit the invention to particular embodiment configurations. As used herein, these terms may reference the same or different embodiments that are combinable into other embodiments.

Consequently, in view of the wide variety of permutations to the embodiments described herein, this detailed description and accompanying material is intended to be illustrative only, and should not be taken as limiting the scope of the invention. What is claimed as the invention, therefore, is all such modifications as may come within the scope and spirit of the following claims and equivalents thereto. 

1. An identity analysis and correlation service system, comprising: a tangible, non-transitory, machine-readable medium storing a summary manager service operable to generate a plurality of identity correlation summaries pertaining to a persona, wherein the generated plurality of identity correlation summaries are based at least in part on discovered content corresponding to the persona and analyzed content corresponding to the discovered content, the persona having a semantic position; a semantic analysis service operable to generate the analyzed content, wherein the semantic analysis service is operable to generate the analyzed content based at least in part on a plurality of semantic abstracts, wherein the plurality of semantic abstracts are based at least in part on the discovered content and at least one of persona content corresponding to the persona and community content corresponding to the persona, wherein the community content comprises information pertaining to the persona's involvement with an online community; a data store operable to store the generated plurality of identity correlation summaries; and a dashboard utility configured to graphically display information pertaining to at least some of the generated identity correlation summaries by displaying on a display a plurality of status arrows that show how the discovered content relates to the semantic position of the persona.
 2. The identity analysis and correlation service system of claim 1, further comprising at least one identity service operable to generate the persona.
 3. The identity analysis and correlation service system of claim 1, further comprising a content search manager service operable to generate the discovered content based at least in part on a plurality of search criteria.
 4. The identity analysis and correlation service system of claim 3, wherein the content search manager service is operable to generate the discovered content via a plurality of interactions with a plurality of search engines using at least some of the plurality of search criteria.
 5. The identity analysis and correlation service system of claim 3, wherein the plurality of search criteria is developed by a user via a user interface.
 6. The identity analysis and correlation service system of claim 1, further comprising a notification service operable to provide a notification based on the generated plurality of identity correlation summaries.
 7. The identity analysis and correlation service system of claim 6, wherein the notification comprises an advisory of a possible correlation between the persona and the discovered content.
 8. A computer-implemented method, comprising: searching content on a network based on a plurality of search criteria and storing the results as discovered content; performing a semantic analysis on at least part of the discovered content, wherein performing the semantic analysis comprises creating at least one semantic abstract corresponding to the discovered content and based at least in part on at least one of persona content corresponding to a persona and community content corresponding to the persona, wherein the community content comprises information pertaining to the persona's involvement with an online community, and wherein the at least one semantic abstract is based on a plurality of dominant vectors and a plurality of dominant phrase vectors; based at least in part on results of the semantic analysis, generating a plurality of summaries indicating a correlation between the discovered content and the persona; and graphically displaying information pertaining to the plurality of summaries by displaying on a display a plurality of status arrows that show how the discovered content relates to a semantic position of the persona.
 9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein generating the plurality of summaries is also based at least in part on the discovered content.
 10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein generating the plurality of summaries is also based at least in part on information pertaining to the persona.
 11. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising sending a notification to a user of the at least one persona, wherein the notification provides information pertaining to the indicated correlation between the discovered content and at least one persona.
 12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising receiving as input from the user at least one actionable item pertaining to the notification.
 13. An identity analysis and correlation system, comprising: a content search module stored on a tangible, non-transitory, machine-readable medium and operable to determine discovered content for at least one persona by searching at least one of public content and private content based at least in part on a plurality of search criteria; a semantic analysis module stored on the tangible, non-transitory, machine-readable medium and operable to generate analyzed content for the at least one persona based at least in part on the discovered content and at least one of persona content corresponding to the at least one persona and community content corresponding to the at least one persona, wherein the community content comprises information pertaining to the at least one persona's involvement with an online community; a summary generation module stored on the tangible, non-transitory, machine-readable medium and operable to generate a plurality of summaries for the at least one persona based at least in part on the analyzed content; and a dashboard utility operable to display to a user information pertaining to at least some of the plurality of summaries by displaying on a display a plurality of status arrows that show how the discovered content relates to a semantic position of at least one persona corresponding to a user.
 14. The identity analysis and correlation system of claim 13, further comprising a persona generation module operable to generate the at least one persona for the user.
 15. The identity analysis and correlation system of claim 13, further comprising a notification module operable to alert a user to a potential correlation between the at least one persona and the discovered content. 